Introduction to the Five-Part Series

[00:00:00] This is the continuation of a five part series. This is part four, where I share with you the five habits that have transformed my life and made me a happier person. So tip numbear four is beginning with the end in mind. I will explain to you exactly what that means and back it up with some research and studies that have been done about how transformative visualization is to creating the life that you love. See you in the show. 

The Power of Visualization

[00:00:46] Welcome back, beautiful people. Today is part four of the five part series. So today I'm going to share with you the habit of the mind that completely transformed my life. I love it. I use it not only on an annual basis as my intention setting for the new year, perfect timing for this podcast to come out, but also on a daily basis.

[00:01:06] And this is beginning with the end and mind. Okay. 

Personal Journey and Transformation

[00:01:10] So let me tell you a little bit of a story about when this all started. When I started, beginning with the end in mind, I attended a workshop when my oldest was a little guy. So I think it was in 2013 or 14, and during this workshop, it was around the new year.

[00:01:24] She had us write down our intentions for the following year, but she had us do it differently than I had ever done it before. She had us write it from the first person present. So if, as if it had already happened, as if the dream had already occurred. It was the first time I had ever done something like this, so it felt really difficult because my mind immediately wanted to tell me all the reasons why I couldn't achieve X, Y, and Z in that amount of time, or ever really in my life.

[00:01:55] So I did the exercise, she set the timer, it was what we were there to do, so I did it. And then I folded it up and I put it in my drawer in my room. I think that she wanted us to read it occasionally, like pull it out and look at it, but I didn't look at it until several years later. Now I had started the practice.

[00:02:13] It was so beautiful because not only did I have this big, wild, hairy, scary vision, big dream things written down. I also had very tactical day to day type of things like I want to work out more. I want to eat more healthy. You know, all the things that we typically say, during the transition from one year to the next.

[00:02:34] And during the time that piece of paper was tucked in my drawer, I had done more study. I had learned more about Dr. Joe Dispenza and becoming supernatural. I had followed up with different types of other workshops that used similar style of visualizing what you want. I had gone to a hypnosis training. I had become a certified neuro linguistic program practitioner.

[00:02:58] And so I was really into this idea of visualizing your future, visualizing what you really want and feel it deep in your bones, like we talked about during the gratitude conversation last week and last week's podcast. It's similar. You want to feel this in your bones as if it has already happened. Be excited about it.

[00:03:18] Have a full on sensory experience when you are creating your future version of yourself. Even though I had been into the research and study of the profound impact that visualization and hypnosis had, I still didn't truly believe it. I mean, how many of you are out there that you might believe something, you know, about 75%, but you don't truly believe it because some of it can seem so out there.

[00:03:43] So what I used to call woo woo, which now I'm like, that doesn't exist. I mean, there is so much that we do not understand as humans. And to think that we actually do is bonkers being in the medical field for over a decade. I see this time and time again with research around drugs and medications and treatments.

[00:04:02] It changes so fast. We can see it just within our cell phones alone. Actually recently we bought an electric car and the dealership was really trying to push a lease on us instead of buying it because they said that the technology changes so quickly that this car will probably be obsolete in the next five to seven years.

[00:04:21] And it's true, but we still bought it instead of leasing it. But, it's so true. Things change so quickly, but I did not believe this, even though I had been reading about the profound impact that it could have until one day I was cleaning out that drawer in that side table next to my bed, and I found that letter and I started reading the letter and it said things like, I no longer drink alcohol, I have a flexible schedule. I pick my kids up from school. I have my own business as a coach. Now, you guys, I was a full time physician assistant. I spent years getting my medical degree. I worked in a clinic at 12 hour shifts. At this point, there wasn't even such a thing as working remotely doing telehealth. There's no way in the world that I knew how I would be a coach or what kind of coach I even wanted to be.

[00:05:13] And it wasn't really specific and it said it in there, actually. Not sure what kind of coaching I'll be doing, but coaching was in there. It also talked about how I was traveling with my family in the summers. And again, I was connected to a clinic. I was a full time in person provider. So the idea of traveling in the summers with my family is impossible.

[00:05:35] And at that time, I read this, I was not quite there yet. But I had quit drinking and it had been two years since I had my last drink. I had an extremely flexible schedule. The clinic I was at just kept giving me everything that I asked for. I, at that point had, it was two years into my coaching business when I was helping women go a hundred days without drinking and my jaw was dropped.

[00:05:57] I just could not believe all of the things that had come to fruition. From the time I wrote that letter to quitting drinking, to having that flexible schedule for having me in business as a coach was like three to four years. And I mean, it's just wild how that happened. And so I've been doing the same thing every year in some capacity since that time, and so many other things have come to pass.

[00:06:21] So you remember when I mentioned that I visualized traveling with my family in the summers, the past two summers, that's exactly what we've done. Is I've spent the entire summer traveling. The first time we did that was in 2021 and we did five weeks and then in the year before, I think it was seven weeks in this past summer.

[00:06:39] It was the entire summer. And again, y'all, when I wrote this out, there was no way that I could afford it. There was no way that my job would have allowed it. I absolutely loved being a physician assistant and working in the clinic. At that point, I had no desire to not have some sort of direct client patient relationship and some other things that I had been writing more recently in the past three to four years is about my kids being in a school with a really rich community and for me having amazing friends and parents in that community where I felt like I could really lean on and that my kids were thriving in this community and that's all come to pass.

[00:07:20] It is just wild. And the interesting thing is, like I said, it took about three to four years for me really to see this manifestation happen. But now it's happening more quickly. And actually, we joke that it's Kinzler family parking because when we go into a parking lot, We always just say we're going to get the best parking spot because we have Kinzler parking. We all have the magic of having a really close parking spot to the front and it always works now that we believe it. 

Scientific Studies on Visualization

[00:07:47] So I'm going to give you some studies that have been done about this idea of visualization. I mean, y'all athletes use this. Any athlete that you know will visualize themselves dunking a basketball or scoring a touchdown or finishing a track race.

[00:08:01] I mean, this is common practice now. So there are a couple studies that really bring this home. But you can google this and so many more will come up. One of the most well known studies on creative visualization in sports, is by Charles Garfield, back in 1985. I think it's a book called Peak performance mental training techniques of the world's greatest athletes. 

[00:08:20] In the study there were these four groups of world class Soviet athletes. Okay. These people are dedicated to training for hours. So in the first group, they trained 100 percent of the time physical training 100 percent of the time and group two, they trained 75 percent of the time and then 25 percent of the time they mentally trained.

[00:08:37] So they visualize themselves doing the thing. In the third group, 50 percent physically trained and 50 percent mentally trained. And in the fourth group, 25 percent physically trained and 75 percent mentally trained. So when these four groups were compared shortly after the 1980 Winter Olympics. Group 4 was the group that had 25 percent who physically trained and 75 percent who mentally trained, had significant greater improvement than Group 3, Group 2, or Group 1.

[00:09:06] So that says, that the research found that group 4, who spent 75 percent of their time devoted to mental training, performed the best in the Olympics. These are done by Harvard researchers. This is a very well known study as well, they took a group of volunteers who had never played the piano before, and they divided them into two groups.

[00:09:24] They half the group. One half practiced a simple five finger piano exercise for two hours a day, over five days. And the remaining did the same thing, but they imagined themselves doing it. They imagined themselves sitting at the piano, without physically moving their fingers in any way. They just visualize themselves doing it.

[00:09:45] What's really cool about this study is the before and after brain scans showed that there was the area of the brain that controls finger movements lit up and created new neural circuits in both groups. So even though one group did not move their fingers at all, it's still fired these new neural circuits in that area of the brain. And the subjects who only imagine playing the piano repeatedly fired and wired those brain circuits with their attention and intention.

[00:10:13] And over time they created the same neural pathways. I read a study similar to this one a while back and it actually showed the people who are visualizing playing the piano versus the people who actually played the piano, performed equally. So one didn't outperform the other. So they were still able to play the piano, even if they were imagining it.

[00:10:33] And these are people who had never played the piano before. 

Applying Visualization in Daily Life

[00:10:35] Beginning with the end in mind can really hope you have a little bit more ease in your life and less structure. Funny enough, right? So you'd think that beginning with the end of mind, if you know what your final destination is going to be, then you have to work really hard to get there.

[00:10:50] But here's the thing, it's like, if you're going on a road trip from New York to California, and you put California in your GPS, then you can take detours, you can get a flat tire, you can check out the cool roadside attractions. Nothing is going to fully get you off course from getting to California if it's in your GPS.

[00:11:10] If that is where your heart is set on, if that is where your mind is set on, then you will ultimately get there. So if we have that belief and that trust, then we can have more fun. What is it? What's the saying? It's not about the destination. It's about the journey. Then you can have more fun on the journey.

[00:11:26] It will allow you to maybe pick up the breadcrumb or that download or that intuition hit saying maybe I should do this right now because it will ultimately lead you to that destination that your heart truly desires. 

Conclusion and Next Steps

[00:11:39] So I hope this helps. Let me know what your ultimate destination is. And this is what I'm here to help.

[00:11:45] So if you want to work together one on one where we can really come up with what your destination is and create a hypnosis and visualization for you to listen to every night, then hit me up. I'm here for it. All right. I hope you have a fantastic day and see you next time.

[00:11:59] Did you know that everything you do is a habit and I'm not talking about just those behavioral things those action items like working out or not working out or drinking or not drinking or way you eat and all of that no every single thing you do is a habit that means that your emotions are habits that means the thoughts that you have are indeed habits. 

[00:12:19] So I will share with you next week, the fifth habit that completely transformed my life and made me a happier person on next week's episode. And that will round out this series. If you've been here the whole time, thank you, adore you, and I can't wait to meet you one day in person.